Hot Topics:

PETER LUCAS: Race riots, anti-war protests -- it could be '68 all over again

By Peter Lucas

Updated:
07/19/2016 09:12:54 AM EDT

Serious civil unrest and war got Republican Richard Nixon elected president almost 50 years ago.

That was in 1968. The same could work for Donald Trump in 2016.

The country was torn apart in the '60s with anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, race riots and the burning of neighborhoods and cities in Watts, Newark, Detroit and elsewhere.

They were similar to the anti-police riots in Ferguson and Baltimore today, but nowhere near the murderous anarchy that took place in Dallas, where a lone black terrorist shot and killed five cops because they were white, or the killing of three cops in Baton Rouge on Sunday.

Back then, with cities in flames, Nixon campaigned as the candidate who would restore "law and order" to a frightened nation. He also said he had a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam -- a war that was tearing the country apart.

Then came the 1968 Democrat Party convention in Chicago and the riots. The public was horrified over the weeklong battles fought nightly in the streets of Chicago between militant anti-Vietnam War demonstrators and the police.

Those lawless demonstrations shocked and frightened the nation, and led to the re-emergence of former Vice President Nixon and his law-and-order message.

It worked. Nixon defeated Democrat Vice President Hubert Humphrey for the presidency. Humphrey was tied to President Lyndon B. Johnson, the man who was blamed for the Vietnam War and the subsequent riots.

Advertisement

Those ties are similar to the ties Hillary Clinton has with President Barack Obama.

Obama, like Johnson, is not on the ballot. Nor is his vice president, Joe Biden. But you can rest assured that Trump will be running against Obama's legacy, as represented by Clinton, the way Nixon did against Johnson, as represented by Humphrey.

Clinton, who served as Obama's secretary of state for four years, is running, in effect, as though she were Obama's vice president. Obama is supporting her the way Johnson supported Humphrey.

Back then the unpopular Johnson proved to be more of a handicap than an asset. Humphrey's campaign did not catch fire until he broke with Johnson over the war, but the break did not come until it was too late to save him.

"Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids you killed today," was only one of the many anti-war chants used against the president and Humphrey.

Like Humphrey before her, Clinton will be defending the incumbent president -- the status quo -- running as though Obama's third term was at stake.

Indeed, Trump has already referred to Clinton as the "secretary of status quo" while calling himself "the law-and-order candidate."

There are no demonstrations against Obama's back-burner wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is no military draft forcing young people into the military to fight these wars. So very few young people are affected, or concerned, let alone angry enough to protest. Nor is there any opposition among the young to Obama's phony "war" against radical Islamic terrorism. Obama will not even utter the words.

Now all of the anti-war energy of the '60s that rocked the nation has been transferred into a war against the police, a war declared by Black Lives Matter, which has been implicitly supported by President Obama.

William Johnson, the executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said Obama's refusal to condemn Black Lives Matter, which called for the killing of cops, led to the Dallas massacre

"It's a war on cops," Johnson said.

While Trump was careful to skirt the race issue following the Dallas atrocity, he was quick to compare the treatment of today's cops to the ugly treatment given to many returning veterans of the Vietnam War.

"We went through an ugly chapter in our history during Vietnam, when our troops became the victims of harassment and political agendas," Trump said. "For too many police today, that is their daily reality."

"It's time for our hostility against our police and against all members of law enforcement to end," Trump said. Sounding like Nixon a generation ago, Trump said, "I am the law and order candidate."

A generation ago, Lyndon Johnson, despite promises, failed to end the Vietnam War and the riots, and only made things worse. Humphrey paid the price for that.

Barack Obama promised to unite a racially divided country, end two wars and defeat radical Islamic terrorism. But, like Johnson, he only made things worse. Now Clinton will pay the price.

So go riot, people. You'll elect Trump.

Peter Lucas' political column appears Tuesday and Friday. Email him at luke1825@aol.com.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sun. So keep it civil.